Monet’s Poppy Fields, cut by Carol Ottenberg

In a recent pack from Hoefnagel, I had two fun hand-cut puzzles — one from Stave, and this one from Carol Ottenberg (aka Ledgewood Puzzles), who I was happy to meet at Puzzle Parley 2024. Look at those fabulous whimsies — hand-cut! The image is cited as Claude Monet’s “Poppy Fields at Vetheuil” (1879), and […]
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Geode, Nervous Systems

A fun blue geode puzzle from NERVOUS Systems, via Hoefnagel. Another reviewer described this puzzle as easy, a review at which Ash and I looked askance, but, once we got going, it was — well, not “easy”, but very doable. (Much easier, at any rate, than the Wongo elephant it was paired with!) Bastet anointed […]
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Elephant, Wongo

I wanted to like this elephant by Wongo puzzles (courtesy of Hoefnagel) — I liked the image, all the fun patterns, and of course, ELEPHANT. But it was so fiddly — some of the pieces were really, super tiny. It took Ash and me several hours, together, and we had to drag in a third […]
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Happily Ever Aftering, David Galchutt, Elms

Really lovely hand-cut puzzle via Hoefnagel, cut by “Lisa” at Elms. “Happily Ever Aftering”, by David Galchutt. Gosh, this was beautiful and fun to do.
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Pixel Peaks by Julie Amlin, Puzzle Lab

We did another fun Puzzle Lab puzzle today — “Pixel Peaks“, with art by Julie Amlin (the original artwork is called “Above the Blue”, but it was renamed for the puzzle ….). The whole family, plus Cass, worked on it. Puzzle Lab says: Sometimes, waters are turbulent. But there’s always a safe shoreline and a […]
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Rackham’s Forest Nymphs, FoxSmartBox

Arthur Rackham is one of my favorite Victorian children’s illustrators, so I was happy to pick up “Forest Nymphs” from FoxSmartBox. FoxSmartBox calls this image “Forest Nymphs”, but I’ve seen it more commonly labeled “Wood Nymphs” — for instance, at the NYPL digital collection, in an illustration of John Milton’s Comus (1634), published in 1921. […]
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3 Cat Max dragonfly, Vicky!

Vicky & Michele did a 3 Cat Max dragonfly. … finished the tail off a little later.
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Purple Pulse, Anthology

After the fun orange puzzle, I knocked off a purple mini-puzzle from Anthology — “Purple Pulse“, art by Lori Anne McKague.
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Tangerine Tapestry, Artistry

This image looks really cool & quite distinct — in a small size. But in the large size of the actual puzzle, there was a lot more muddiness & difficulty seeing things. It wasn’t pixellated, but it was a lot harder to see things — however, it all did come together ultimately. Also, I noted […]
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Moonlit Serenade, Fathom Puzzles

“Moonlit Serenade” — another amazing puzzle from Fathom Puzzles in Vermont — this one a complex, shaped wolf-themed puzzle, with cut-outs and some non-unique connections, requiring very careful attention to the grey-scale patterning — and a few times I flipped pieces over to verify a match based on the wood grain. I really loved the […]
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Poohsticks, by Iwona Lifsches, from Artifact

“Poohsticks” (image by Iwona Lifsches, cut design by Ashley Boyd, puzzle by Artifact) was the second in a Hoefnagel pack (with a BCB puzzle) that I knocked off while recovering from a bug. This one was interesting — the majority of the pieces had one of three standard interlocking shapes, a tulip, a fish fin, […]
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Miko’s Jazz Frog Choir, cut by BCB

I have loved all the BCB (Brookie Biglands) puzzles I’ve done, and this one is no exception. The cutting is so lovely & well-fitting, the puzzle hangs together vertically by one hand, and the image (by “Miko“) was cute. This was one of a Hoefnagel pack, and I did both of them on Sunday, recovering […]
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Harvest Island by Cinyee Chiu, Hellofish

Thanks, Hoefnagel! This HelloFish (Taiwanese laser cutter) puzzle, “Harvest Island“, by Cinyee Chiu, was a fast assembly. I particularly liked the tree whimsies — visible at the bottom of the puzzle. 200 pieces, 23cm x 23cm, “easy”. This about the artist: Cinyee Chiu, a Taiwanese illustrator living in the United States. She values the unique […]
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Rhode Island fishes, Hope Puzzles

I really enjoyed this fish-shaped puzzle from Hope Puzzles in Rhode Island — the “Fish of Rhode Island” puzzle. Fish shaped, fish images, fish whimsies … truly fishy. Thanks, Hoefnagel! It had one of my most favorite etched whimsies ever — the manta ray (or skate? hmm) with the spots. Etchings are not usually my […]
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Diego Rivera Detroit Industry, Nautilus

Hello to my friend Art Keene! Who lent me this beautiful wood puzzle version of Diego Rivera‘s “Detroit Industry” (actually, one of Rivera’s numerous Detroit Industry murals). Hard! And already the cats have tipped it over. Well, one cat — Bastet — and also, it was my fault for putting it in a tippable place. […]
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Chris Yates Baffler 4949, Warp and Woof, Orange

August 4 – Hard! We started to make some progress but there’s a lot to go. August 7 – Finished! Chris Yates’ posts on flickr (or was it instagram?) about this puzzle — indispensable, honestly.
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Branching Out, Stave

I haven’t fallen in love with Stave “teasers” — puzzles where you assemble a frame, then snuggle various whimsical shapes into place. But I really liked this one! There was lots of significant puzzling in assembling the “frame”, which was really its own shape — a tree — with various little holes where creatures were […]
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Forest Fables, Trippy Puzzles

“Trippy Puzzle Co.” is a laser cutter, listed on Etsy, that says “designed in the US, made in China.” The box is very similar to another puzzle I got recently — can’t remember which — and includes “display feet” like a CraftHub puzzle. So I take it there is a laser wood cutter in China […]
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Nadieh Bremer Coronium, Artifact

Enjoyable puzzle (“Coronium” by Nadieh Bremer) by Artifact, courtesy of Hoefnagel – even though I don’t ordinarily love digital art like this, I really liked the cut. This 172 piece wooden jigsaw puzzle by Dutch digital artist Nadieh Bremer is named for Coronium, a new atomic element hypothesized in 1887 to explain signals in the solar […]
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King Dasaratha, Inside Out

From Inside Adventure (via Etsy), this beautiful painting of King Dasaratha, from a scene in the Ramayana. Inside Adventure says: This puzzle contains dozens of hand-drawn whimsy pieces, intricately cut into the shapes of different characters, animals and plants. They are works of art within the puzzle. … Our whimsies are carefully crafted and designed […]
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